Conflicted
by ellkayjay
Summary: A Gibbs/Kate story that starts off a bit differently. Following on from their first meeting in Yankee White. It will become Gibbs/Kate, honest! Please give it a chance, and review.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first attempt at an NCIS story, with my favourite pairing, Kate/Gibbs. It starts off a bit strangely, but will eventually have a Kate/Gibbs slant to it. This is set immediately after the events of the first ever episode, Yankee White, but assumes the relationship between Gibbs and Fornell to be the one that is established where they have known each other for years, rather than the one where they meet for the first time on Air Force One.

Please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters or storylines.

* * *

Caitlin Todd had had an eventful few days. She had experienced an attempt on the president's life and the death of a friend, as well as resigning from one job and gaining another. She had also managed to get a date with an FBI agent.

_Agent Fornell had caught up with her as she left the NCIS building, just after she had agreed to Agent Gibbs tagging along on Air Force One. Gibbs had gone off to run a couple of errands, she was picking him up later to take the flight out to California to meet the rest of the detail. _

"_Agent Todd?" Fornell had called as she had made her way back to her car. _

"_Agent Fornell, everything OK?" _

"_What was that all about?" The FBI agent looked curious, worried that the FBI were missing out on some part of the investigation no doubt. __She had guessed that he was going to sound her out about what Gibbs was planning, seeing as he had been told that the case was all but closed._

"_Oh, nothing much, just Gibbs calling in a favour." _

"_You know the man has been married 3 times don't you? Dangerous around women, that one is."_

"_Three times? You're kidding? Oh well, three marriages means three divorces, that bit doesn't surprise me."_

"_I, on the other hand, have only been married and divorced once. Much less dangerous." Was Fornell flirting with her? "You fancy grabbing a drink later?" Yep, definitely flirting. He was no Gibbs, but Kate had always gone for the older man, and he definitely had something._

"_I would love to, but I have to rejoin Air Force One tonight. I could definitely make it tomorrow night though, if you are free?" Kate also had to go and break off things with Tim between now and 5.30. Things had got a little unprofessional there. W__hile it might seem callous to accept a date with a man before she had finished things with another, she did not feel too bad. Kate and Tim had never been serious, they had had a good time, but it was really just sex._

"_I most definitely am free. Here, let me take your number and I'll give you a call."_

_

* * *

_

Things had now changed somewhat. Kate had left her position with the Secret Service, and had been offered a job with NCIS, starting on the following Monday. She was also dealing with the fact that Tim had died mere moments after they had agreed to break things off. The whole thing left her feeling strange. She was grieving for him, but only as a friend. She was also in a quandary about whether or not she should meet Fornell for that drink. If she had had second thoughts about accepting the date with him, she was now worried about how it would look if she actually went on the date, just days after Tim had died. "Screw it," she said aloud. It wasn't as though Tim and she were exclusively dating, they had had fun but things were never serious. She decided to go and meet Fornell.

* * *

"So you're going to be working at NCIS?" Agent Fornell asked, as they sat in the bar at the hotel.

"Wow, happy news really does get around this town fast, huh?" Kate was glad she had decided to go through with the date, even if it felt a little strange.

"Yeah, well, I called in there today to get some more of the findings of the original autopsy from Ducky, and DiNozzo was telling me all about it. He's rather excited at the thought of having such a beautiful partner."

"Are you sure he said that, Agent Fornell, or is that you speaking?" Kate asked, turning the flirting notch up by one.

"Please, call me Tobias. And yes, 'beautiful' was my choice of word. I think DiNozzo's was 'hot'. Or some such frat boy expression. Not that I disagree." Typical DiNozzo, Kate thought, also noting that Fornell had decided to match her flirting.

The evening progressed very nicely, with Kate discovering that Fornell was a charming man. If she wasn't as attracted to him as much as she was Gibbs, well that wasn't his fault.

"Well, Kate, it has been a real pleasure. Would you like to do it again sometime? Before you start at NCIS, and Gibbs ruins you for everyone?" Fornell asked, as he walked her to her car.

"He can't be that bad, surely! But yes, I would love to do it again. I start at NCIS on Monday, so if you are serious about going out again before then, it would have to be the weekend."

"How about Friday night? I could take you for dinner?" He asked as they reached Kate's car.

"Mmm, that sounds fabulous. You have my number, give me a call and we'll arrange it," she said, as she reached into her bag for her keys. This was the bit of the date she always hated, the awkward 'Will he or won't he kiss me?' moment. At this point, she was hoping for a kiss.

"I will certainly do that," he said, leaning towards her. Looked as though it was a 'he will be kissing me' moment, Kate thought. She leaned back on her car slightly, as he leaned in and their lips touched lightly. It remained a light kiss, until Kate decided to deepen it, and she felt his lips part. Kate moved her hands to his neck, and his went down to her waist. She broke it off with a sigh, knowing that if it went much further she wouldn't need much persuading to take things back to her apartment. She leaned her forehead against his.

"I should probably be going." she said, reluctantly.

"Yeah, I guess," Fornell said, his eyes going down to her lips. He leaned in again, and his lips grazed Kate's. "It was a great evening Kate."

"Yes it was. Make sure you call me about Friday."

* * *

Friday:

Fornell and Kate had enjoyed quite the date. He had been charming and attentive, and she had laughed a lot. They had made it further than the car tonight, all the way back to his sofa. He had picked her up in his car and taken her to the restaurant, and when he had suggested coffee at his apartment when the meal was over, Kate found herself saying yes. She didn't really want to start anything too serious, but as long as she stayed in control it would be fine.

Half an hour later, and things were getting hot and heavy on the sofa. Things had started off innocently enough, Fornell had actually made coffee and they had sat together, drinking it and chatting. Then he stroked Kate's face with his finger, and took her coffee cup with the other hand. He traced her lips with his fingers and then leaned in and kissed her. Tonight it was Fornell leading the way, he deepened the kiss and moved his hand down to her thigh. Kate leaned her hands against his chest as his other hand went behind her head and began to play with her hair.

After a while, Fornell had leant Kate back, and begun to unbutton her shirt. She wasn't sure that she wanted things to move on this fast. From here, it was a very short step to the bedroom, and this was only the second date.

Just as Kate was beginning to think about slowing things down, Fornell's phone rang. He broke the kiss with a sigh. "I'm sorry. I have to take that." Kate was relieved, and was just re-buttoning her shirt when her own phone rang.

"Hello?" she said, not recognizing the number on the caller display.

"Kate? It's Anthony DiNozzo here. Gibbs asked me to call, we've just had a new case come in and he was wondering if you could start tonight, rather than Monday?"

"Tony. Gibbs did not wonder if I could start tonight, did he? My guess is that he said something like, 'Get Agent Todd on the phone and tell her she's starting tonight.' Right?" Kate smiled as she talked to Tony. This was the perfect excuse to get out of whatever it was that was happening with Fornell.

"Well, yeah, maybe. Can you?"

"Yeah, no problem. I'll be there within the hour. See you soon Tony."

Kate hung up with Tony and turned back to Fornell, who had caught the tail-end of my conversation. "I take it you heard that? Gibbs has asked me to start early, apparently a case has come in."

"Funny you should say that, my call was from work too. I have to go into the office." Fornell lent in and kissed her again. "I'm sorry; it's not exactly how I planned this evening going."

"Me either," Kate said. But duty calls."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: OK, so here is Chapter 2. As promised, it was never going to be anything other than a Gibbs/Kate story, and Fornell was just a plot device to make Gibbs jealous! Thanks for the positive feedback so far!

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its storylines or characters. Much to my chagrin.

* * *

Six Weeks Later:

Six weeks had passed since Kate had started at NCIS, and had passed in a blur. The case that Tony had called her about on that Friday night had turned out to be fairly complex, but Kate enjoyed working it with Tony and Gibbs. She was getting on well with the team, she had renewed her acquaintance with Ducky, the charming Medical Examiner with a twinkle in his eye, and she had met the crazy forensics specialist, Abby Sciuto. She had also met Timothy McGee, the techno whizz kid, when he had officially joined the team last week. Kate had decided early on that she was probably going to enjoy working at NCIS very much. Granted, Tony was annoying, but she thought he was going to be annoying in that 'older brother' kind of way; he would do nothing but antagonize her all day long, but he would be there for her if she needed him.

And then there was Gibbs. There was no denying it; Kate was very attracted to the man. Obviously nothing could ever come of it, firstly she worked for him, and secondly she was fairly sure that the feeling was not mutual. She had thought that there had been something there while they had been together on Air Force One, and then she had seen him disappear with the red head in the convertible. And since she had started at NCIS, he had been nothing but business-like with her.

That original case completed, they had since had three more cases, all of differing intensity levels, the last being the worst. They had dealt with the case of the badly mutilated bodies of a Petty Officer and a sixteen year old girl. They had finally wrapped the case this morning, arresting the Petty Officer's wife ("It's always the wife," according to Tony), and Gibbs had just told them that they could leave for the day. Coming at 4.30 on a Friday afternoon, this was welcome news, as they were all tired. Kate subtly looked over at Gibbs. Of course, he wouldn't be leaving early. The man drank so much coffee that she was sure he probably never slept. The man never showed any signs of tiredness or fatigue, and seemed to look unfavorably on anyone else that did.

Gibbs felt Kate looking at him, and wondered what observations she was making. Her past in profiling meant that nothing anyone did was just 'because'. She did it all the time with suspects, and whilst her observations there may have turned out to be correct more often than not, it did not mean he wanted her doing the same thing with him.

"So, Kate, any plans for this evening? Seeing your mystery man?" Gibbs' ears pricked up. DiNozzo had been trying to get details of the man in Kate's life out of her for weeks, and she always dodged his questions with insults about his latest conquest. It was a well played game that the two of them had going on, and if Gibbs didn't know better, he'd think it was flirting. But DiNozzo knew Gibbs' rule number twelve: Never date a co-worker. And he meant it too – it would only make things difficult, especially in the field, if the two of them had anything going on. He had always tried to play by his own rules, even if it was proving more difficult these days. Kate had intrigued him from the get-go, since the moment he had met her on Air Force One. She was a damned good Secret Service Agent, he could see that, and could hold her own against the big boys. She was proving to be a pretty handy NCIS agent too, and would be one of the best in a few years if she listened to everything he was teaching her. It would have helped if she hadn't been so damned cute though. She reminded him of Shannon, the same determinedness and stubborn streak, with the ability to stand up to him, something that not many people found that easy. He was constantly having to remind himself of his own rule, although that didn't seem strictly necessary, as she hadn't displayed any interest in him, at least not since that day on Air Force One. He had thought that he had felt something between them, back then, but it seemed to have dissipated since she joined the team, which was probably a good thing. And now there was talk of this 'mystery man' from DiNozzo again.

"Is it any business of yours what I am doing tonight DiNozzo? Let me guess what your plans are – trawl the nearest bar looking for some airhead who is beautiful but not quite intelligent enough to recognize a womanizer when he is staring her in the chest? Sounds like a great night out." Kate retorted. Gibbs hid a smile.

"Oh come on, Kate, you gotta give me something. I give you all the details of my romantic interests," DiNozzo said as they walked towards the elevator. "Oh, 'night Boss! Have a good weekend!"

"Bye Gibbs," Kate called as she boarded the elevator. "And yes, Tony, you do give me all the details, despite me having begged you to spare me…" Kate's voice trailed off as the elevator doors closed.

Well that was that, another week done. And Gibbs had very little to look forward to this weekend, apart from doing some more work on the boat. Not that he didn't enjoy it very much, but when he had just spent the vast majority of the last five days in the company of someone like Kate, going home to his basement and his sander didn't have quite the same appeal. On a whim, he decided to call his old friend Tobias, and see if he was interesting in getting together at a bar for a drink.

* * *

The truth of the matter was that, despite what Tony thought, there no longer was a 'mystery man' in Kate's life. Of course, that title _had_ belonged to Fornell. Tony had caught Kate on the phone with him a couple of times, and despite his best efforts, had not found out who had been on the other end of the line. They had got together a couple more times after those first two dates, but Kate had quickly lost interest. It wasn't fair of her, not really, but she couldn't help comparing him to Gibbs.

The two men were both around the same age, but Gibbs was so much more physically attractive. Not only that, Fornell's demeanor had ceased to appeal to her, if it ever did. He seemed to want to bend over backwards to please her, a nice enough quality in a potential boyfriend, but one that Kate had come to find… irritating. Every time he did anything for her, she would think, "Gibbs wouldn't do that." He would go over the top with compliments, or would buy her an extravagant bunch of flowers. Maybe he was trying to overcompensate for the fact that he could feel her getting cooler with him, or maybe that was just what he was like naturally. Either way, she couldn't handle it, it was cloying and claustrophobic. Whilst she was under no illusions that the feelings that she had for Gibbs would ever be reciprocated, she couldn't continue seeing Fornell while she was feeling like this.

So, she had called it off, and hadn't seen him in about four weeks. Things had never gotten serious between them, they hadn't slept together, and she didn't feel too awful calling it a day. He had called a couple of times since then, and left her messages basically asking if she had changed her mind, which she had ignored. It had been over a week since the last one though, so she hoped that he had got the message. She just hoped nobody at work ever found out, because that would mean Gibbs finding out, and she couldn't deal with him knowing, somehow. Maybe subconsciously she thought that it would affect her chances with him, even though she was sure that he didn't return her feelings.

Still, that left her at a loose end tonight, and for the rest of the weekend. She decided to call Abby, and see if she wanted to get together. Kate could see Abby becoming a close friend; they had already been to the movies a couple of times together. The first time, Kate had let Abby choose the film, and had come out convinced that she, like all the lead characters, was going to be hunted and killed by zombies. The second time had been Kate's choice, and whilst Abby had protested slightly at the prospect of a romantic comedy, Kate could tell that she had secretly enjoyed it.

* * *

Fornell had agreed to meeting up with Gibbs at their usual bar, and Gibbs had a bourbon waiting for him when he arrived.

"Jethro, everything OK? You don't usually call to invite me out on a date on a Friday night?" Fornell said, removing his jacket as he sat down opposite Gibbs.

"Everything's fine Tobias, just thought I'd get out of my basement for a couple of hours, and decided to ask you along for some company." Gibbs said, not alluding to the fact that it was a female that had got him feeling slightly lonely.

"Well I am glad you did. I haven't had a chance to catch up with you since the debacle on Air Force One. No hard feelings over the way the press was handled on that, I hope? The Secret Service wanted it kept as low key as possible."

"Of course not. When have I ever complained that NCIS didn't get the credit they deserved?" Gibbs asked, with a wry smile.

"Don't start old man. Let's just have a nice drink. How is work though? Your new agent working out OK?"

"Agent Todd? Yeah, she's fine. Got a lot to learn, but she's getting there."

"Good, good. Can always be a bit of a pain trying to break in new agents, especially when they have learnt bad habits at other agencies."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Only last month we had a new recruit, fresh from the FBI who didn't know his ass from his elbow." Gibbs never let an opportunity like that pass.

"Very good Gibbs. I'm surprised you even had a recruit from the FBI. Most of our agents are looking to move up the career ladder, not take a step backwards." It was a well-rehearsed routine between the two men, both insulting the other one's agency without any hint of true ill-feeling. "So Agent Todd is working out OK, then? I wondered if she would get on OK with DiNozzo. It must be difficult for him to work with an attractive woman, when he's so used to staring at your face all day."

Gibbs narrowed his eyes slightly. What was this new fascination with Kate on Fornell's part? He'd managed to bring her into the conversation twice, a sure sign that he wanted to talk about her, but did he want Gibbs to ask him why? Was something going on between the two of them, or did Fornell just wish there was. Gibbs took a sip of his drink as he decided how to answer.

"Something you want to ask me, Tobias? Or maybe tell me?" Gibbs decided to tackle it head on. He didn't want Fornell to guess that he had feelings of his own for Kate, but he felt he could question him in the guise of the boss, rather than of another interested party.

"Hmm? Oh well, you know, she's a good looking woman." Fornell dodged. Looking Gibbs in the eye, he conceded. "OK, well if you must know, we went out a couple of times." Gibbs tried not to let the surprise show on his face. "Maybe 4 or 5 times, but it was a bit of a non-starter. She seemed to cool off quite quickly, not long after she started at NCIS, and called things off. I just wondered if she had mentioned anything."

Gibbs struggled with his desire to throw Fornell across the room. Not only had the man married his ex-wife (against his better warnings), he had now been out with Kate. Then he checked himself. It wasn't quite the same thing; Fornell had no idea that Gibbs had feelings of any kind for Kate, they weren't involved in the slightest, and Fornell was only human after all. What straight man with eyes and a brain wouldn't find Caitlin Todd attractive?

"She hasn't mentioned anything at all to me, Tobias, but then we don't really have that kind of tell-all relationship. She's one of my agents, and I have no desire to hear anything about any of their personal lives, to be honest."

"Yeah, I know, I just wondered. I called her once and left her a message," Fornell said, failing to mention the second time, worried that he might appear desperate in front of Gibbs, "and she didn't get back to me, so I guess that's that. Oh well. You know me Gibbs, a confirmed bachelor at heart, just like you."

Sure, thought Gibbs, we're confirmed bachelors, but it looks as though we'd both give that up quickly for the right girl. The same girl, none the less.

* * *

Kate and Abby had decided to grab a pizza and some ice cream and have a girly night in.

"So, what's this in aid of? You're not nursing a broken heart are you Kate?" Abby asked.

"Me? No, of course not. I just couldn't face a whole weekend in on my own again. It's becoming a bit of a habit. I am always too tired to go out with my friends to bars, chasing Washington's most eligible bachelor. Not that it really appeals to me, anyway. But I sometimes wish I had someone to share the weekends with, other than the pizza delivery guy."

"Well who's this mystery guy that Tony keeps teasing you about? He keeps asking me who it is, but I have to tell him that I have no idea!"

"The truth is, Abby, that there is no mystery guy. There was, a guy at least, someone I was seeing as I started with NCIS. But it was over before it started really, and it's fun to let Tony chase his own tail trying to work out who it might be."

"Oooh, so come on, spill! Give me some details about this mystery guy. How did you meet him? Why didn't it last very long?" Abby wanted to know everything.

"He was just a guy, I met him through my last job, and it's over because… well, just because. He got a bit annoying, and he wasn't really doing it for me anymore. It was never serious anyway." Kate was reluctant to tell Abby that it was Fornell. While she trusted her not to say anything to Tony, she still wasn't sure she wanted anyone knowing. She really didn't want it to get back to Gibbs.

"So if he's off the scene, is there anyone you like? You know all about my crush, now tell me yours!" Abby had told Kate all about her crush on McGee, the newest member of Gibbs' team, and although nothing had happened yet, Abby was confident that things were developing well. "You must like someone, even if just a little bit?"

If Kate was reluctant to tell Abby about Fornell, there was no way that she was telling her about her all-consuming crush on Gibbs. She knew that she had done a very good job of hiding it so far, Abby was usually good at guessing what was going on in people's lives, but she hadn't gotten so much as a sniff of this one.

"Honestly, Abby, there is a distinct lack of men in my life at the moment, other than the guys at work, and like I said, the pizza delivery guy!"

"Hmmm," said Abby, an all-knowing glint in her eye. "I guess I'll have to believe you." Abby wasn't an idiot, she knew that there was someone that Kate liked, and so far she had it down to two suspects: Gibbs and Tony. She would find out eventually, or her name wasn't Abigail Sciuto.


End file.
